This invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring a temperature of a subject. More specifically, the present invention relates to a technology for measuring non-invasively the distribution of internal temperatures of a human body, or the like, by utilizing tomographic technique of a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and displaying the distribution, and can be utilized for medical diagnosis.
A clinical thermometer is a typical known means for measuring the temperature of part of a human body but is not the means for measuring the temperature distribution of the human body. An apparatus which can measure the temperature distribution of a body surface by measuring the distribution density of infrared rays emitted from the body surface is known as means for measuring the temperature distribution of the human body.
Information on the body temperature of the human body has been very useful for medical diagnosis even if such information is information of part of the human body or the temperature distribution information on the body surface. Therefore, it would be revolutionary for medical treatment if means capable of measuring the temperature distribution inside the human body non-invasively and accurately were available.
Technology disclosed in JP-A-61-8040 and JP-A-62-81538 is known as a prior art technology for measuring the temperature distribution inside the human body. However, these technologies have not yet been put sufficiently into practical use.